Prepub Mystery
By Barbara Hoffert Aug 15, 2010Carrington, Tori. Love Bites. Severn House. Jan. 2011. 192p. ISBN 978-0-7278-6913-5. $28.95.
A RITA Award nominee and winner of a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, Carrington-actually, Lori and Tony Karayianni-here brings back Sofie Metropolis. Even as she tracks down a missing woman and helps a local vampire accused of murder, Sofie finds herself having to choose between a cute bounty hunter and a Greek baker. Sounds sweet and light like a flaky Greek pastry.
Clement, Blaize. Cat Sitter Among Pigeons. Minotaur: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 272p. ISBN 978-0-312-64312-6. $24.99.
Back in her sixth mystery, Dixie Hemingway is cat sitting for an elderly gent when his granddaughter shows up, baby on board, in flight from some con men who've scammed some starry-eyed investors. A nicely appreciated series; lots of publicity.
Ebersohn, Wessel. The October Killings. Minotaur: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 336p. ISBN 978-0-312-65595-2. $24.99.
Her parents were killed when a white security force massacred antiapartheid activists, but 15-year-old Abby Bukula was spared when a young soldier intervened. Now, with someone killing off members of the force, he needs her help. So Abby appeals to prison psychologist Yudel Gordon, in his fourth outing-though this launches a new series. Yes, South African crime fiction is hot, and Ebersohn is an international best seller.
Grant, Barry. Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Letter. Severn House. Jan. 2011. 192p. ISBN 978-0-7278-6946-3. $27.95.
Okay, the premise of Grant's Holmes series seems pretty far-fetched-frozen in a Swiss glacier, the redoubtable sleuth thaws out and emerges in the 21st century to fight crime again. But some readers found the first book in the series, The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes, perfectly persuasive. Here, with the help of sidekick James Wilson, he battles terrorists while seeking a letter reputedly written by Shakespeare. Consider for big collections, especially where Holmes reworkings are popular.
Griffiths, Elly. The Janus Stone. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2011. 336p. ISBN 978-0-5472-3744-2. $25.
In her second outing, archaeologist Ruth Galloway must determine whether the skeleton of a child-found when a house in Norwich is torn down-represents long-ago ritual sacrifice or contemporary danger. Griffiths's debut, was "strong, well plotted...suspenseful [and] highly recommended" (LJ 9/1/09).
Havill, Steven F. Double Prey: A Posadas County Mystery. Poisoned Pen. Jan. 2011. 250p. ISBN 978-1-59058-782-9. $24.95; pap. ISBN 978-1-59058-784-3 $14.95. lrg. prnt.
A teenager is found dead in an arroyo, apparently killed when his ATV skidded off the road. But he also seems to have discovered something before his death that for Posadas Undersheriff Estelle Guzman brings to mind an earlier, unsolved case. Havill's Southwestern mysteries are always popular.
Hockensmith, Steve. World's Greatest Sleuth!: A Holmes on the Range Mystery. Minotaur: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 336p. ISBN 978-0-312-37943-8. $24.99.
Hockensmith's debut, Holmes on the Range, was an Edgar Award nominee. Subsequent novels haven't always fulfilled that promise, but last year's The Crack in the Lens won a lot of spurs, er, stars. Here, Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer head for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Old Red aims for the title of World's Greatest Sleuth. Instead, the brothers encounter murder.
McCullough, Karen. A Gift for Murder: Market Center Mysteries. Five Star: Gale Cengage. Jan. 2011. 246p. ISBN 978-1-59414-931-3. $25.95.
Alas for Heather McNeil, assistant to the director of the Washington, DC, Market Show Center; she's found a murdered executive at the Gift and Home Trade Show. McCullough is an Eppie Award winner for her fantasy and four-time Eppie finalist, plus a finalist in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests, so pay attention.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2011. 272p. ISBN 978-0-5473-8546-4. $25.
Oates, who remains the master of literary dread, here shows how mystery starts in the home. For instance, a young woman's childhood terrors wreck havoc for her professor mother (the award-winning "Smother"), while an adolescent girl finds herself playing for really high stakes in a game of "Strip Poker."
Sansom, C.J. Heartstone: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery. Viking. Jan. 2011. 720p. ISBN 978-0-670-02239-7. $27.95.
Even as the French fleet gathers for an attack, a servant of Queen Catherine Parr asks Matthew Shardlake to investigate an unfortunate situation regarding a ward of the court. Then he discovers that she's somehow tied to a woman in Bedlam. Huge best sellers in England, Sansom's Shardlake mysteries are starting to build here, with 200,000 copies of the four previous titles in print. Love those Tudors!
Thompson, Richard. Big Wheat: A Tale of Bindlestiffs and Blood. Poisoned Pen. Jan. 2011. 250p. ISBN 978-1-59058-820-8. $24.95; pap. ISBN 978-1-59058-822-2. $14.95. lrg. prnt.
In summer 1919, even as the threshing season advances in the Dakotas, the self-styled Windmill Man follows the workers with murder on his mind. The author's Fiddle Game was shortlisted for a Debut Dagger, and Frag Box was a finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards. So this historical has promise.
Todd, Charles. A Lonely Death: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery. Morrow. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-172619-4. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
Barry Award winner Todd-actually, a mother-and-son writing team-returns with another in his long-running series. Here, Inspector Rutledge investigates the murder of three men who made it home safe from World War I. Todd first hit the best sellers list with 2009's A Matter of Justice.
Walsh, Jill Paton. The Attenbury Emeralds: A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery. Minotaur: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-0-312-67454-0. $25.99.
Published here in 1998, Thrones, Dominations was Walsh's completion of a Lord Peter Wimsey story abandoned by Dorothy Sayers and found decades after her death. That was followed by a new Wimsey mystery, A Presumption of Death. Now, nearly a decade later, Walsh returns with another piece of Wimsey that harks back to the detective's first case in 1921. Here, Lord Attenbury, grandson of the original client, is having new anxieties about the immense emerald Wimsey recovered. Calling all cozy fans.
-Barbara Hoffert
